Immoral and illegal

I feel the need to write about the immoral and illegal way our government is treating migrants from Central America and Mexico. After reading your Dec 15 article about the death of a 7-year-old girl at the border, I felt shocked and ashamed. Is this happening in my country?

This is on top of the news about families being separated at the border, which is still going on despite a judge ordering it to be stopped. Never mind the reports about families who travelled to Tijuana with the caravan, and how the Border Patrol is refusing to process most of them, refusing even to do an initial interview where they ask if they are fearful about returning to their home country.

Then they’re tear-gassing men, women and children. In addition to being against international refugee law, these are immoral and un-American practices.

We are a nation of immigrants. Immigrants have built our bridges, roads and skyscrapers. They are doctors, nurses, teachers, farmworkers and social workers, and they enrich our society in so many ways. We shouldn’t forget that, and we should not go along with the fear-mongering of those, such as Trump, who blame immigrants for everything.

Every human being who comes to our country’s borders seeking asylum deserves to be treated with basic respect. We need to end the cruel practice of separating children from their parents, and we need to give people a chance to explain why they would like to immigrate to our wonderful country.

Jayne Turcotte, Ventura

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